Our Underneath
by Aphonious
Summary: Alyss would have gasped but now she hardly dared to breathe. One of Dodge's hands clenched her shoulder ... another held her just above her hip in a rough grip. His breath was hot on her ear and neck.'


**Summary**: Sexual tension is afoot! Beware of drug addicts and whores!

(Takes place during Book1 in between where Alyss and Dodge leave the camp and he takes her to the ruins of Heart Palace.)

Disclaim!

***

...

Alyss had always thought that returning to Wonderland would be the answer to her troubles. But now that she was finally here, after thirteen long years, things only seemed more confusing than ever. She was still recovering from the shock of her interrupted wedding to Leopold, the sudden re-entry into her home world, and now she was being led through the desecrated remains of the once gleaming city of Wondertropolis by a strange man. And strange he was, this Dodge Anders. This rough and demanding vigilante held no resemblance to the memory of the childhood friend that she had clung to for so long. She remembered a boy who revered his father and dreamed of growing to be a courageous soldier for White Imagination. A boy who despite his dedication to the rules, would always make time for breaking them if it was for his Princess. She watched his back as he lead her in a dizzying path through dark streets she no longer recognized. If it were not for the tell-tale scars that decorated this Dodge's face, Alyss would not have been able to believe that they were the same person.

Alyss bumped into Dodge as he suddenly stopped and, without looking back at her, held up a hand to motion her to be silent as she righted herself. She strained her ears to listen and heard muffled voices that were steadily becoming louder and clearer. _Someone's coming! _She went to touch Dodge's arm when he spun back towards her, moving her farther back into the darker part of the alley they currently occupied and pressed her body up against the wall with his own.

Alyss would have gasped but now she hardly dared to breathe. One of Dodge's hands clenched her shoulder, making sure that the hood of her cloak hid her face; another held her just above her hip in a rough grip. His breath was hot on her ear and neck. She shivered slightly.

She heard the voices of two men, close to them, discussing where to find the best prices on artificial crystal. They paused in their conversation to yell a few lewd things at her and Dodge as they came into view, and after some raspy laughter moved on. As soon as the sounds of the men faded, Dodge pulled away from Alyss.

"Let's go," he said, not really looking at her.

_We must have looked like lovers. _Alyss felt a sudden weight in her chest that both saddened and confused her.

She fought to push the emotion aside and focus on the task at hand, but before they had a chance to move she and Dodge were interrupted a second time by a woman's laughter that startled them both.

"I thought that was you," purred the woman who crept up from the way they had just come. Her voice was a little rough, but even in the shadows that surrounded her Alyss could tell that she was exceptionally pretty.

"Dodge, honey, how come I never see you around anymore?" Underneath her hood Alyss caught a glimpse of red lips as well as long, dark hair that she thought to be comparable to her own.

Alyss looked to Dodge, whose jaw had become tight and who did not bother to move away as the woman approached them. There was a look in his eyes that she could not identify.

"I just don't get you, boy," the woman smirked at Dodge. The sharp heels that peeked out from the bottom of her cloak clicked lightly on the cobblestone. Since she had come closer, Alyss was able to note that they had similar body types, though the woman was more endowed in the chest than she was.

"Sometimes you're practically a regular, other times months will go by without a visit. You just can't treat a girl like that, y'know. But business aside..." she leaned up against Dodge, her lips almost touching his. "I _miss_ you, honey." Her hands traveled down his chest and for a moment Alyss thought that Dodge would kiss her, but then he raised his hands and forced her somewhat roughly away from himself. The woman raised her eyebrows and then looked at Alyss, as though noticing her for the first time, then back to Dodge. A moment passed and she laughed again.

"Really! She can't be the new girl, can she?" The woman looked Alyss up and down, in the way a vulture might critique a corpse. "Well, I can hardly say that I approve of you stealing one of my clients, but I might as well let you in on a few trade secrets, dear. The boy pays well enough, certainly, but his visits are quite erratic and he'll insist on calling you --"

"That's enough." Dodge spat. His face was losing its stone-like quality and he was becoming obviously flustered. "Unless you have anything useful to say, you may take your leave of us."

The woman smiled but said nothing. She curtsied with a flourish of skirts and waved them on their way. "Until we meet again, Master Dodge..."

Dodge gave no reply and moved away from her. Alyss followed behind him, looking back once more before they exited the alley. The woman's eyes met her's and mouthed, with unneeded exaggeration, a name.

_Alice_.

Alyss' heart jumped up into her throat and she spun quickly away from the woman.

Dodge now lead her at a much quicker pace through more winding streets and alleyways. Alyss found that she almost had to run to keep up with him. Until, finally, he slowed to a stop in a doorway off of one of the more narrow streets. Well, the entryway to a house in any case, since the door had long since been busted in. Alyss could see that no one had occupied the house in quite some time, so they were concealed for the moment. "There," he said, inclining his head towards something. Alyss looked ahead of him and saw, just a few streets ahead, what was felt of the old and battered main gates of Heart Palace. Her home-- or, at least, what had been her home thirteen years ago.

Dodge began to move forward again, but this time Alyss caught his arm and held firmly. "Who was she?"

Silence and then, "No one."

"She knew my name."

"She didn't know it was _your_ name."

"Then why did she say it?"

"Because--!" Dodge whirled round to face her. But as his eyes met hers for the first time since their trek through the city had began, the anger seemed to melt from his face and there was no more fight in his words. "Because... you were gone. You were... dead," he almost choked on the word. "There was nothing but more death to remind me of you. I needed..." But whatever Dodge had needed, he didn't say. The hardness returned and he gruffly said, "Come on, let's--"

And Alyss, who was still grasping his arm, pulled herself towards him and forced her lips onto his. She didn't know why she had done that, but she couldn't very well undo it now. Her heart was now pounding and in a moment of frivolity hoped that Dodge could not hear how very loud it was.

Dodge was unmoved at first, possibly temporarily stunned at how forward she was suddenly being; his lips were taut under her's. But his resolve waned and he began to kiss her back. Alyss sighed with relief and desire as she wrapped her arms about his neck and felt his around his waist. Their kiss deepened and they began to move further back into the house, feet blindly shuffling debris out of their path.

Alyss bumped into something behind her- it turned out to be a counter of some sort- and Dodge pushed her up onto it. Then his hands were in her hair, on her breasts, his tongue was in her mouth. She found her own hands traveling over Dodge's body; felt the muscle under his skin, toned from more than a decade of fighting. Then his shirt was undone and she felt the scars there too, the light dusting of hair on his chest. Dodge moved her hands aside as he worked on the buttons of her shirt, biting and sucking on her neck as he did so. Alyss moaned as his mouth moved lower with each button he undid.

But Alyss felt some fear surface over her lust as Dodge opened her shirt to reveal the corset she wore underneath. She knew absolutely nothing more about sex than what she had gathered from the few anatomy books that she was able to get her hands on. God knows her sisters didn't know anything about it and the one time she had tried to ask Mrs. Liddell about it, the woman became offended and ranted about what an indecent thing it was for a proper young lady to even think about. Up until this point, the most she had ever done was exchange polite kisses with Leopold. Alyss briefly wished that she hadn't returned to Wonderland until _after_ her wedding night. At least then she would have had some sort of frame of reference.

Dodge sensed her hesitation and his fingers fumbled with the fabric of her shirt, suddenly unsure of the situation they had gotten themselves into. "I, ah, sorry," he stammered. "This is too soon, isn't it. I shouldn't have pushed you into... things." He shifted his legs so that his erection wasn't pressed against her quite so much (a difficult thing to achieve since Alyss had at some point wrapped her legs around him).

"What? No, Dodge, you're... you're fine," Alyss sighed and smiled, her hands encircling the ones that still hovered nervously near her chest. "It's... just that I, I hadn't thought to get new underthings at the camp and this, um, corset from London is such a hassle to get in and out of but... Dodge," she released his hands so that she could wrap her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Please, don't stop," she whispered against his lips. "I've needed you for so long. Please, if only for these few moments, just be with me."

Dodge's hands were resting lightly on her hips. He knew that even though they were in an empty house, they were still in danger of being attacked. He knew that every villain in Wondertropolis would be more than happy to hand the Heart Princess' head over to Redd.

He also knew that with all that lay ahead, and everything that Alyss still had yet to do, and even the duties that would come to her as Queen after the war, they may never have a chance like this again for a very long time. Supposing, of course, that they both survived the coming war.

Alyss had not asked Dodge for his love, nor for his companionship. She had merely asked for a brief time to enjoy what could have been between them in another life.

He could not deny her that.

...

***

This was kind of a challenge for me since I haven't done fanfic in forever. It was originally supposed to be lemony, but I chickened out. Maybe if enough of you lot like this bit, I'll up the rating and add what comes next in another chapter. ;)

Thanks for reading!

-A.


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